Several Indian H-1B visa holders held a equality rally in Washington DC, demanding immigration law reform to benefit those in the country legally. The protest took place days after the US administration suspended a number of popular non-immigrant visas, including the H-1B, H-4, H-2B visa, J and L visas till the end of 2020.
Protesters were carrying placards which included slogans like “Hate Has No Home Here”, “Senator Durbin Hates Indian Immigrants” and “Racism is a Disease”. Indian immigrants, including women and children also participated in the protest rally.
“These are taxpaying law-abiding skilled immigrants who are already in the country for many years- doctors, engineers, scientists and professors. They are stuck in the long green card backlog which will span 150 years! What we are doing here is protesting Senator Durban’s hold on the bill yesterday and he is making sure that Indian immigrants who are already here would not get equal treatment under the law, which is unfair,” said Aman Kapoor, Immigration Voice president.
Today protests broke out outside @SenGaryPeters’s office protesting @SenatorDurbin’s bigotry against Indian immigrants.
Durbin needs to be constructive by negotiating with Senator Lee, instead of shamelessly grandstanding on the Senate floor.
Sen Peters needs to denounce Durbin pic.twitter.com/m0Jl0cWCMs
— Immigration Voice (@immivoice) July 23, 2020
During the rally, the group also demanded that the green card backlog must be cleared up before the wait time.
The decision to ban visas are a huge set back for a large number of Indian IT professionals and several American and Indian companies who were issued H-1B visas by the US government for the fiscal year 2021 beginning October 1.
They would now have to wait at least till the end of the current year before approaching the US diplomatic missions to get stamping.
